


No Surprises

by pieandsouffle



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: AU, Gen, not my idea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-03 05:51:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2840354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pieandsouffle/pseuds/pieandsouffle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's made it through the Imperial Academy; years of training; transferal to the largest Battle Station ever built, and then this princess walks in and tosses his already shaky doubts about the Empire in his face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Aren’t you a little young to be delivering someone for interrogation?” The princess asks peevishly.

He tries very hard to keep his mouth shut, but it’s difficult. All the prisoner does is mouth him off, in ways and in language that he’s not sure he understands properly, especially considering his somewhat-less-than-satisfactory upbringing. Insults are being delivered to him in a fashion that he can’t quite decipher, especially since his Basic ( _Basic,_ for kriff’s sake) is not as sophisticated as he wants it to be, and his Alderaanian is dismal.

And it’s only a ten-minute walk to the interrogation chambers, so it’s completely unreasonable that the princess is walking as slowly as humanly or alienly possible, jabbing him with unpleasant barbs that he wishes he didn’t have to listen to, especially since half of them are addressing his own doubts about the empire which is making him feel awfully confused.

“I’m well aware that minors aren’t legally permitted on board military vessels, officer, so I’d advise it if you requested to be relieved from duty and returned to your home planet. Goodness knows, the empire hardly needs more dead children on their hands.” The princess says, with the air of someone who’s beginning to enjoy herself, even with impending torture staring her sunnily in the face.

He makes an awful lot of effort to not react to that last statement, but- well. He has to say _something._ The best way to stop someone from talking is to tell them, pleasantly or otherwise, that their opinion is not valued (even though the princess is one of the only people on the ship that he has the feeling he might have been friends with, and she’s a kriffing _prisoner,_ and she’s spewing wisdom and things he can’t honestly deny).

“Can you- kindly, for once, probably for the _first time in your kriffing life- **shut up?**_ **”**

He’d hoped to say it with a little more grace, but the sentence leaps from his mouth surgically attached to the Corellian accent he just can’t shake, and a swear word.

Unfortunately, the words work to almost the opposite effect; the princess’s eyes widen with false concern. “I’m so _sorry,_ ” she says, cuffed hands clutching dramatically at her heart. “I had no idea my words would cause such an effect on you. I will henceforth not mention your tender age to ensure you are not expelled. There’s no need to thank me, Officer-” She makes a display of squinting to find his rank (which is neatly pinned to the front of his jacket). “Warrant Officer.”

He covers his face with the one hand not pushing the princess. It’s not with resignation, it’s with something else that wasn’t brought out by those last few words, but maybe something before that.

“Dead children?” he asks her, and from the corner of his eye, he sees her mocking expression fall to something far more serious. He can’t work out if that’s a good thing. “What did you mean by the empire not needing more dead children in their hands?”

She’s looking at him pityingly. It’s not good pity.

“You honestly have no idea the effect you and the others have on the rest of the galaxy, do you?” she says coldly. “Allow me to enlighten you during the journey back to my cell. I have an interrogation I must attend first.”

He stands still and watches her be pushed roughly into a small room, the door slamming shut in the blink of his eye. The clang is ominous and echoes through the tinny corridor. One of his friends pass by with a small wave, but he finds he really can’t bring himself to talk to him, to any of them.

For some, strange, inexplicable reason, he hopes, desperately, that her worshipfulness is strong enough to blot out the interrogation.

Because Han has a few questions.


	2. Chapter 2

The princess does not end up doing as she promised, but Han can see, even with his eyes that seem to be able to overlook the horrors which occasionally torture him through guilt-stricken nightmares, that she is no position to tell him anything, at least until she recovers the first round of interrogation. She mumbles to herself as he half-carries, half-pushes her back to her cramped room confinement. Something about the Rebel Alliance, Darth Vader, nerfherders, but it’s hard to make out anything longer than a few words before her voice gives out and she’s merely mouthing her words.

 

A trooper walks by, obviously just let off from duty; helmet firmly wedged under his arm and blaster nowhere in sight. It’s Dreen, another Corellian, someone who made it through the academy like Han, but this man has utmost faith in the galactic empire.

 

Dreen smirks at the princess when he sees her barely awake, eyes hooded and sunken and glaring and noble and commanding still, even in her state of pain and exhaustion. For some odd reason, the leering glare from someone who is his friend makes Han furious. Which is absolutely preposterous, since he cares for no one at all but himself and this girl is no exception. The only one he may have cared for was his mother Jaina, and she’s been gone for such a long time he can’t even remember her face, much less her nature. He certainly has no love for ideals; he feels no emotion for the empire except a faint and lingering sense of disgust that taints his mouth. There’s a coppery, dirty taste on his tongue that’s been there for a very long time.

 

He glares at the trooper until he’s left his sight.

 

The princess mutters something about the plans, and how she’ll never give them up. He’s sorely tempted to ask about them, (to help, perhaps the empire, perhaps her, he’s not quite sure, but-)

 

Han tells himself he won’t ask her any questions. He tells himself that the empire is honourable and is focused on bringing peace to the galaxy, and that he _shouldn’t_ , under any circumstances, fraternise with prisoners, especially powerful ones such as Princess Leia.

 

The Rebel Alliance is a threat to the galaxy and the empire, the only thing holding it up and preventing an inevitable descent into chaos.

 

(Perhaps there’s a reason the rebellion exists, to address what the empire ignores or what the empire does-)

 

Han shakes himself and tells himself not to consider, however briefly, a better way to unite the galaxy than the empire.

 

He’s on the _Death Star_ for kriff’s sake, surrounded by the cleverest Imperials in the galaxy, not to mention Darth Vader; a dark figure who could have jumped directly from Han’s worst dreams; lurking and breathing deeply, almost comically; a man who can seemingly sense discord in a second and wipe it out in even less time than that. (Of course he’s not actually comical, he’s far too terrifying for that.) And although Han’s skin crawls when he’s near the man, there’s a weird respect for him that he can’t shake (as much as he wishes he could).

 

Han’s not stupid; he’s seen the bodies of the unluckier officers and the ones who dared to whisper (or even just _think_ ) of rebellion in the presence of Vader. He heard about the Rand Ecliptic, and he knows full well that the rebels (completely unaware their plans are known of) on that ship will soon be terminated, as according to the empire’s laws.

 

(As will the princess.)

 

Thinking about other things doesn’t stop him from seeing how young she is.

 

It also doesn’t stop him from understanding that she has given away no secrets.

 

What a cause the Alliance must be, one that a young woman feels so loyal to that she could withstand torture and interrogation from Lord Vader.

 

Regardless of her strength, he’s horribly aware that her feet drag the whole way back to her cell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing style changed?? That sometimes happens if I've been reading too much. Ahem, anyway, once again this was not my idea, so please kindly check out the lovely blog from which this sprung, phil-the-stone on tumblr. Thank you and goodnight.

**Author's Note:**

> I most definitely did not come up with this AU, I believe tumblr user phil-the-stone (If you have tumblr go follow her right now) came up with the idea that Han made it through the Imperial Academy and met Leia aboard the Death Star during A New Hope. IDK I might add more to this later.


End file.
